Turkey attracts 3.24 pct more tourists in Q1

The number of foreign visitors to Turkey rose 3.24 percent in the first three months of this year over the same quarter of 2013, to 4.35 million, according to data released on Thursday by the Ministry of tourism and Culture.

Turkish Tourism Ministry issued a report on Thursday detailing the number of foreign visitors to the country in the first quarter and in March separately.

Almost half a million more tourists visited Turkey in March when compared to the preceding month. Turkey welcomed 1.35 million visitors in March alone.

The most frequently used entry points for foreign visitors to Turkey during the first three months of this year were the İstanbul airports with 2.2 million visitors, followed by the airport in Antalya with 537.875 visitors, the land border crossings in Edirne on the Bulgarian border, the far northeastern province of Artvin that borders Georgia and the eastern province of Ağrı, which borders Iran.

The same data also showed that 0.9 percent of foreign tourists in March were day trippers.

Despite mass demonstrations that unseated the government in Ukraine and the country's conflict with Russia over Crimea, the number of Russian and Ukrainian visitors to Turkey increased in March, compared to the previous month.